Thursday, 15 October 2009

Although examples according to the claimed invention are not mandatory parts of a patent/patent application disclosing an invention, they are however, in general, construed to illustrate, within the framework of the description, the core section of the claimed invention and to relate to preferred embodiments thereof. In general, they serve the purpose of demonstrating the benefits of the claimed invention, and their results should, apart from few accidental failures, therefore fulfil the requirements of the claims. Hence, examples should, in the Board’s view, provide the person skilled in the art with all the essential details necessary for the verification of their reported results (e.g. by repetition, if necessary), such as starting materials, process features and process conditions.

In other words, the examples should confirm that the description of the patent or patent application in suit provides a coherent, convergent teaching enabling the skilled person to arrive at the goals of the claimed invention, and should thus make an extensive research programme superfluous. [5]

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